50 Great Bookish Articles From ATLAS OBSCURA

One of my favorite sites on ye old web is Atlas Obscura. For readers unfamiliar, it’s a site that bills itself as “the definitive guide to the world’s wondrous and curious places.” I like to think of it as the website where I get cure some of my wanderlust, visiting some of the coolest and weirdest places from the comfort of my own home. Beyond travel, though, Atlas Obscura has published numerous pieces about books, about reading, and about historical bookish life that have always been among some of my favorite reads. The site is a treasure trove for book nerds. Here’s a round-up of 50 of the site’s most interesting, engaging, evocative, and downright weird features perfect for book lovers. I’ve not included everything Atlas Obscura has included in their destinations, so spending a little time poking around their map of cool places is well worth your time.  

Authors

The Strange Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe’s Hair 8 Places From Shakespeare That You Can Actually Visit  

Book History & Book Nerdia

The Banned 1910s Magazine That Started A Feminist Movement In Japan Bibliomania, The Dark Desire For Books That Infected Europe In The 1800s Book Towns: Where Reading Is The Reason To Live Every Book Is A Journey But These Posters Make Reading Seem Like A Trip How Nigerian Romance Novelists Sneak Feminism Into Their Plots Letter Writing Manuals Were The Self-Help Books Of The 18th Century Libriophiliac Love Letter The Past and Future of Magnetic Poetry, The Populist Product That Began With A Sneeze The Russian Poetry Scandal That Ended In A Duel The Saga of a Long-Lost 15th Century Illuminated Prayer Book See a 400-Year-Old Book Made Entirely From Feathers See The Most Luxurious Medieval Manuscripts in Existence Why Fake Diaries Can Be As Powerful As The Real Thing Why The London of British Literature Barely Changed For 200 Years  

Bookstores

This Adorable Alabama Bookstore Only Sells Signed Copies A Jordan Bookseller’s 24-Hour “Emergency Room For The Mind”  

Children’s Literature

The Forgotten Government-Funded Kids Books Of the Great Depression A Guide To The Real-Life Homes Of The Heroes of Children’s Literature The Secret Jokes Hidden in Alice in Wonderland These Hand-Drawn Maps Helped Create ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Books Why People Have Such Strong Feelings About The Spelling Of “The Berenstain Bears”

Libraries

The Fierce, Forgotten Library Wars of the Ancient World Get Lost In The Stacks of These 10 Beautiful University Libraries Growing Up In A Library Is Exactly As Magical As You’d Imagine The Hushed Interiors of 19th Century Libraries Inside The Most Amazing Map Library You’ve Never Heard Of Inside The New York Public Library’s Last Secret Apartments Inspiring Libraries In The Most Unexpected Places Library Hand, The Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made For Card Catalogs Libraries On The Beach The Oldest Treasures From 12 Great Libraries Reading In Restraint: The Last Chained Libraries Secret Libraries of Chicago Secret Libraries of London Secret Libraries of New York City Secret Libraries of Paris Secret Libraries of Rome The Strange Affliction of “Library Anxiety” And What Librarians Do To Help The US-Canada Border Runs Through This Tiny Library Vintage Photos of Traveling Libraries The Women Who Rode Miles On Horseback To Deliver Library Books    

Publishing

How Books Designed For Soldier’s Pockets Changed Publishing Forever How Novels Came To Be Written in the Voice of Coins, Stuffed Animals, and Other Random Objects Lovely Hidden Paintings Adorned The Edges of Historic Books The Strange History of Microfilm, Which Will Continue To Be With Us For Centuries The True Practice of Binding Books in Human Skin The Unsung Delight Of a Well-Designed Endpaper Watch A Book Being Made The Old Fashioned Way